Eczema?

[Renaye]

I have been gluten free for several years and I have a rash on the back of my ear since I was a little girl. I have been to various doctors and only received steroid creams which I have used off and on throughout the years for flares. 6 months after going gluten free my facial glands swelled and I couldn't get my rash under control. I went to a dermatologist who biopsied it and also found staph. The only diagnosis I received was eczema. Dermatologist said it could be caused by stress since I claw it during the night or itch it when nervous. Interesting though, that during my 2 pregnancies, I never had a flare.

Since then I wonder if it could be celiac related and didn't show up since I was off of gluten. It does not explain why I keep having problems now unless I need to be more careful with hair spray and shampoo.

Any thoughts?

[LauraTX]

It very well could be eczema, and it is possible you had a DH issue before going gluten-free, but as you said, you wouldn't be able to tell now without ingesting gluten.  With any skin rash, scratching it can introduce bacteria into the open wound, and cause an infection.  It would be a good idea to figure out a way to reduce the amount you scratch it.  Daytime you can do consciously, but at night time, you may want to find some kind of stocking cap that covers the area, as odd as that sounds.  But particularly with eczema, scratching and irritating it is the worst thing to do.  I have eczema and it seems every year I get it in a new place, but as long as I take care of it and don't let it get irritated, it will go away after a few months.  Especially in my teenage years I would ignore it, scratch it, and not do anything for it, and it just stays there and gets worse.

 

Taking a look at your hair products is also a good idea, they could possibly be irritating the spot as well.

[SMRI]

I had a similar spot on my hand--but only off and on for the past couple years.  The dermatologist froze it off to break the "cycle" of the itching, scratching flair-up.  It still itches and now that I have my Celiac diagnosis--which I did not have yet when I saw the dermo, my endo suspects it's DH.  The spot looks better, not scaly like it was, but it still burns and itches off and on.  I have a similar area on a finger that shows up every once in a while that came back last week too, same type of symptoms but more infrequent.